by KD Blakely
My heart was beating fast when we turned down the second road. We decided to walk until we could barely see the beginning, then wait for the first sign of Ray and the others. Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait long.
We could hear them before we could see them. Pyg chose that moment to leave Olivia’s shoulder, where he’d perched since we entered Chimera. I heard Olivia mutter, “Now what?”
It didn’t take long to get her answer. We heard Polly scream and Andrew curse, while Ray yelled, “Not again! Some stupid bird pooped on me again!”
“What about me,” Andrew yelled back.
“It’s not in your eyes, is it?”
As the owl swooped back onto Olivia’s shoulder, she said, “Good job, Pyg! Let’s just make sure he never realizes you’re the bird delivering the droppings!”
Faith snickered. “Delivering the droppings!”
I grinned. “How ‘bout providing the poop?”
“Dealing the dung,” Olivia said.
“Furnishing the fertilizer.” Faith’s eyes sparkled with amusement. “Or making the manure.”
Not to be out done, Doug said, “Shoveling the sh—”
Olivia interrupted him, her hands over her ears. “Don’t say it! I can’t hear words like that!”
“What, will your delicate ears fall off?”
The blazing red blush on Olivia’s face made me jump to her defense. “It’s one of our rules — no cussing around Olivia. If we start using words like that, she’ll slip and repeat them at home. Then she’ll be grounded ‘til she’s thirty.”
“Sheesh,” Doug said, rolling his eyes. “You girls have way too many rules.”
After that, we waited for the Rejects in silence.
As they drew closer, I could hear Ray yelling at his rat. “Get away you filthy flea magnet. I’ll bash your head in.”
Thank goodness they hadn’t figured out their animals could communicate. I hoped the rat was smart like our animals. Maybe it would learn to keep its distance.
Note to self – Think how to keep Ray disgusted with rodents!
Just then, I caught a glimpse of Ray near the beginning of the road. Faith saw him too. To get his attention, she yelled, “Oh no!”
Ray whipped his head around. He bellowed, “There they are,” and turned down the road toward us.
Doug muttered, “Alright,” as Andrew, Polly and Carly followed Ray. Behind them, their animals trailed dejectedly after them.
We were committed now. I yelled, “Run!”
Good thing we had a head start. The Rejects were gaining by the time we hit the first turn in the road. At least, according to the map, there were a lot of hills and twists, so they shouldn’t be able to see far ahead. There had to be a spot we could leave the road, out of sight of Ray and the others.
After a few short turns, we hurried down a hill toward the perfect area. The Rejects were out of sight and there were plenty of bushes to the left of the road that should hide us.
“Do we have to go in there?” Olivia asked, eyeing the brush with distaste. “Couldn’t we pick a spot without so much…stuff?”
Oh right, she hates to get dirty these days.
Doug just ignored her. He left the path and crossed the field at an angle that would take us back toward the main road. I heard a dog barking behind us, but didn’t pause. We had to get away from the road!
We followed Doug quickly, threading through the trees until we knew no one could see us. Finally, Olivia threw herself down, panting and gasping. I sank down gratefully next to her.
At first, I only heard the sound of panting as we settled down to rest. Then I heard the anxious braying of a donkey. It was Andrew’s animal, and it sounded upset. It reminded me of the excited barking I’d heard when we left the road.
What was up with that?
“The donkey sounds upset. I wonder if Ray tried to hit it with something. Have you noticed how mean he treats them? Pretty soon they won’t want to help the Rejects at all.” Olivia sounded gleeful. She looked back the way we came and brushed a strand of sweat-darkened hair out of her eyes, tucking it behind her ear. “Do you think they’ll be able to figure out which way we’ve gone?”
Doug sat up and glanced back where the road was now out of sight. “I wonder if they can tell where we left the road. We’d better keep going. In case.” Doug jumped up impatiently. The rest of us climbed to our feet, some quicker than others, and followed Doug through the trees toward the main road.
The going wasn’t easy. I really missed having a trail.
In some places, the bushes grew so thick they were like a wall, full of stiff twigs that poked at my skin and tore at my clothes. When the twigs broke, they released a bitter, pungent smell, like stinky cheese.
Whenever we had to force our way through some of those bushes, I held my breath.
I rubbed absently at my cheek where a scratch throbbed, watching as Olivia stumbled over a small rock. She grabbed at a branch to keep her balance, and I was glad it was her this time. I’d already tripped enough, and was ready to be done with trampling through bushes and stubbing my toes on things hidden in the tall grass and dead leaves.
Someone needs to take a weed whacker to this place!
I had no idea how long we’d been walking… stumbling…staggering through the trees. It felt like hours. I tripped again and almost landed on my knees. I decided it was a miracle when I kept on my feet. My poor, aching, tired feet.
If this keeps up, I’ll be crawling.
I had blisters growing on my blisters. Every step stung, and I really wanted to stop walking. For the next week.
At least I wasn’t wimping out like Olivia. She kept asking, “When’re we gonna stop?” Although you couldn’t really call it asking — she was whining. I kept expecting Doug to let her have it.
It was Faith who finally had enough. “Maybe if you spent some time outside, you wouldn’t be such a wuss. It’s just walking. No one’s asking you to run laps like soccer practice!”
That kept everyone quiet as we kept walking. And walking. It might not be like running laps, but the pace Doug set was wicked. Basketball-king Doug and soccer-queen Faith were barely perspiring. I had sweat drenching my face and stinging my eyes. I could feel it dripping off my nose, and I could swear an entire river was pouring down my back.
At first, no one except Olivia suggested stopping — we were too worried about being caught by the Rejects. Now, no one suggested stopping because we didn’t want to discuss the real problem. We should’ve crossed the main road a long time ago. After the hot, dusty minutes, hours — whatever — pushing through trees and brush, I had no idea where we were.
Doug stopped in a small clearing, finally looking as sweaty and out of breath as Olivia. Okay, and me too. I leaned back gratefully against a tree, my knees quivering and my feet throbbing. I was half convinced I’d fall down if I didn’t have something to lean on.
“I don’t think…I can…walk one more step,” Olivia panted, and threw herself on the ground. The others sank down next to her. I was last, letting myself slide down the tree, afraid I wouldn’t be able to get back up once I was down there. As I moved down the tree, it made a loud groaning sound and I sat much quicker than expected. I rolled away from it quickly, grateful when nothing else happened.
“Anyone know where our animals are?” I asked as I slumped onto my back, letting myself go limp. “I haven’t seen them since we left the path.”
“You’re right,” Doug said, sounding surprised.
“That’s not important right now! Where’s the road? We should have reached it a long time ago.” Faith’s voice sounded pinched and she was glaring out of eyes scrunched half shut. “We’ve been wandering in circles.”
“No, we haven’t. I’ve been watching landmarks.” Doug sounded tired and discouraged.
Now there’s a bad sign.
“Do you think we could actually get lost in here? There’ll be no one to help.”
Faith shuddered and looked like she was going to cry. “I’d rather meet up with Andrew than get lost in here!”
I refused to think about really getting lost. I sounded angrier than I meant to when I said, “We just haven’t reached the road yet!”
“But we should have. I wish we could just magically appear on the road!“
For a moment everyone paused, waiting to see if that wish would work. It didn’t, of course. Wishes never seemed to work the way you wanted in here.
Doug’s tone was fierce as he told Faith, “We’re not lost. And stop being so scared. We don’t want to see the others.”
“I don’t know that! I wish you knew just how wrong you are.” Faith snapped back at him.
I was right. Wishes never worked like you wanted in here.
Chapter 19
I Take It Back!
A sudden distant howl shattered the stillness I had started to take for granted. We all leapt to our feet.
“What was that?” Faith whirled around, trying to figure out where the sound came from.
Doug’s face was a mask of anger. “If this is because of your stupid wish, Faith, it’s not going to work.”
“If this is because of my wish, I take it back!” She sounded freaked out.
“It sounded pretty far away,” I told her. I was amazed how calm I sounded. Because the idea of something running around this place, howling, was totally creeporific.
“It was one of the animals with the Rejects,” Doug said dismissively. He might as well have said ‘you’d have to be really stupid to think it was something else’.
Olivia was only a couple feet away from him, but that didn’t stop her from shouting at him. “You’re so full of it! The Rejects have a pig, a cow, a rat and a donkey. When have you ever heard one of those howl?”
The eerie sound came again, off to our left, louder than before. Or was it…closer? My heart stopped a moment, then resumed, racing like I was being chased.
“Could the Rejects be trying to scare us?” Faith was staring uneasily to the left.
“No, they’re behind u—” Another howl cut Doug off. This one was not far away. From our right. Was there more than one…something…out there?
I opened my mouth, ready to suggest we leave, but new sounds had everyone’s heads jerking to the left. These sounds were close. Loud, splintering noises — like small trees being crushed by something huge, moving just out of sight.
Faith’s shoulders were hunched so tight, they were up around her ears. She said, “I wish those sounds would stop!”
Another howl shattered the stillness.
Why don’t good wishes work in here! Note to self — Give up making wishes! It’s pointless.
I kept my voice quiet, not wanting anything out there to hear me. “Okay, that’s not their animals. But couldn’t it still be Ray and Andrew trying to scare us?” How crazy was that. I was hoping Ray and Andrew were trying to freak us out!
“It can’t be them.” Olivia’s voice was just above a whisper. Though her voice was steady, her hands were trembling. “There’s no way they could sound like that.”
More trees crashed loudly to the ground on our right, cracking and shattering as they fell.
We were nearly surrounded! With Ray and his friends behind us, and the sound track from a horror movie playing on both sides, there was only one way out of here.
I pointed the way we’d been going, my hand shaking wildly like a stop sign in a hurricane. “Let’s go. That way!”
The sound of a large tree smashing to the ground just outside the clearing made us all jump. Dust and dirt billowed up, filling the air and making my eyes water. To my right, Faith and Olivia were coughing loudly.
From behind me, Doug choked out, “Hurry.” He grabbed my arm and started towing me across the clearing. I yanked away from him, but kept jogging by his side. I could hear Olivia and Faith following behind.
After several minutes, I had to stop for breath. I was panting so hard I could barely talk. “That…was not…Rejects!”
Doug’s voice was impatient. “They could’ve done something to scare us. Nothing else has been alive in here.”
I snorted. “What, our familiars are CGI?”
Doug rolled his eyes. “Come on, what else could it be?”
“Lions and tigers and bears?” Faith suggested.
Olivia glared at him. “Try ogres and goblins and trolls!” Doug and Faith both rolled their eyes at that.
My voice shook, but I wasn’t sure if it was fear or anger. “Doug. This is a magic place. Those sounds could’ve been made by anything. But that was not the Rejects. And whatever it was, it didn’t sound friendly.”
“Don’t start acting like a bunch of girls,” Doug muttered.
Olivia’s lips pulled back from her teeth. She looked like she wanted to bite him. “Don’t call us a bunch of girls like that’s a bad thing! Of course we worry when strange things start howling. And breaking trees. Right next to us!”
Faith stepped next to Doug. “The last thing we need is for you to act like a know-it-all.” She jabbed her finger at Doug’s chest. “Pretending there’s nothing to worry about doesn’t make it true.”
“Stop. Poking. Me.” Doug spoke between gritted teeth and took a deliberate step back.
Olivia moved next to Faith, standing shoulder to shoulder with her. They were all going to start arguing, and that was a bad idea. We were causing ourselves more trouble in here than the Rejects.
“Stop it!” When they looked at me, I said, “Don’t we have enough problems without fighting with each other? I just wish we had something to help us find the road.”
Something rubbed against my leg and I almost jumped out of my skin. When I looked down, Shadow was sitting at my feet. Where had she come from? I hadn’t seen her for a long time. Not since we’d left the road. She meowed loudly and when I squatted down, she touched her paw to my face. Then she moved a few feet away and meowed again. When I just looked at her, she meowed more insistently.
Then all of the animals were there.
The owl hooted at Olivia from a nearby tree. The fox perched on a rock at the edge of the clearing. I could swear it grinned at Faith. Rusty tugged at Doug’s pants, then moved next to Shadow. He barked once when Doug didn’t move.
Olivia laughed. “They want us to follow them!”
Rusty barked again and wagged his tail, looking from Olivia to Doug. “Alright,” Doug told him. “We’ll follow you.”
Shadow and Rusty turned and moved the direction we’d been going, while the owl swooped after them, hooting wildly. We stared at each other in amazement, then Doug shrugged and followed.
We followed them less than a minute, still lost in the woods. Then we stumbled onto the road. Literally. All I’d seen was woods and more woods, before I tripped over something with my right foot. When my left foot came down, it was on the smooth dirt path. With a shock, I realized I hadn’t seen it until I was actually standing on it.
How had that happened?
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Faith’s voice sounded exhausted. Even the soccer-queen had been having a hard time in the woods. Her face was scratched and dirty, and half of her hair had been pulled out of her braid. “So, did we learn anything today?”
“Yeah,” Olivia said. “Be careful when you leave the road.”
“That’s not the worst thing.” I felt my lips twist into a frown. “The Rejects aren’t the only things we need to worry about in here.”
Olivia frowned at Doug. “You need to stop making fun of us when we’re scared. We need to stick together if something goes wrong.”
“Yeah,” Faith agreed softly. She looked down at the finger she’d poked into Doug’s chest.
Doug just ignored them. “It’s getting late and we don’t have enough time to check out the cave today.” He ignored my stifled protest. “We have to head back. We’ll get there next time.”
Faith’s voice came out so high it hurt
my ears. “Next time?” She cleared her throat and sounded a bit more normal. “You want to come back here after what happened? You’re nuts.”
I told her, “Don’t think about it now.” I got how she felt — I’d been scared too. But we’d made it back to the main road okay, and I wasn’t ready to give up. “Look, we’ll ask Ronny. She might know what happened.”
Faith shook her head, but grumbled, “Better be good.”
Olivia said. “Now we know we can get help from our animals if we get lost.”
“I have a better idea. We never get lost again,” I said.
Faith nodded. “I’m good with that! I just wish the Rejects would have a harder time than we did. Maybe they won’t be so eager to follow us around.”
Olivia grinned. “Great wish!”
We made our way back to the fig tree, then took a couple minutes saying goodbye to the animals. They might have saved us today. I picked up Shadow and stroked her fur until she purred so loudly we could all hear it.
Doug squatted down and told Rusty he was the most wonderful dog ever.
The owl perched on Olivia’s shoulder, closing its eyes in pleasure as she gently stroked its feathers. She said, “Thanks for pooping on the Rejects, Pyg.” The owl hooted softly, and then flew over to a low branch on the tree.
Faith sighed in pleasure as the fox came close enough for her to rub its head.
Doug told her, “I know Ronny calls them familiars and they’ve helped us a lot. But you should be careful. A fox is a wild animal. I’d keep my fingers away from those teeth if I were you.”
Faith and the fox both turned their heads, and looked at him at the same time. They looked so similar I stifled a laugh.
Faith stood up with great dignity and told him, “This fox would never bite me. Not. Ever. Of course, I can’t say if that is true for you.” She sniffed and turned her back on him. “We should go now.”
After we made the long dark passage through the tree, I took a deep breath of the salty air blowing off the ocean. The evening was growing dark and cool. The frogs and crickets in the fields beyond the cemetery were very loud tonight, like they were practicing for some crazy bug symphony.
